Screen-free mornings: a six-week experiment

The rule was simple: no screens for the first hour after waking up. I put the alarm at the far end of the desk, made the coffee on the stove, left the notebook open. I lasted six weeks, and the result was not what I had hoped for.

What didn't work

I didn't finish more work. Nobody writes to me in the first hour of the morning anyway, so there was nothing to miss. On the productivity side there was no measurable gain.

What did work

The real difference was how the rest of the day felt. The first thought of the day no longer began with someone else's sentence. I only saw the difference once I stopped: focus is built before you are interrupted, not after you wake yourself up.

Whoever you hand your morning to also owns the tone of your day.

Two things made it easier: a ready task to do the moment I woke up (coffee, a walk, the notebook) and a rule that doesn't punish you. Breaking it one morning doesn't end the run, it just starts again the next morning.

I'm still doing it, but more loosely: not an hour, just until the coffee runs out. Shortening it is what made the rule survivable.